Figther's For The Future
by EternalStarhaven
Summary: One wish… One trip in time… Everything had changed… A desperate hope or desire… Another's despair and destruction...
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: All of DBZ and its characters are the copyright of Akira Toryiama. The only thing I take credit for is my mind.**

**Fighter's For The Future**

**Prologue**

* * *

One wish… a desperate hope or desire… despair and destruction for another…

Time was sacred and one wish changed everything, altering the path and destiny for everyone connected.

Time… once altered, it could not go back to the way it was. Time is like a piece of thread, connected to a single entity. As it becomes unraveled, separating from the others that had made it whole, it begins to pull, spreading and splitting apart the longer it is left unchecked. Eventually nothing will remain of the original entity, but tattered remains.

The sliver of time, that single piece, should have been fixed long before it had begun to crack… now it was too late.

One wish…

One trip in time…

Everything had changed…

A desperate hope or desire…

Another's despair and destruction...

She was the last piece of a forgotten time and past… the thread that connected it all together. Without her… it all shatters like glass… beyond repair… beyond salvation.

Trunks had created the tear, and because of him, her life was destroyed, forever altered, her people dead, her planet gone. This was not the future that should have been, and there was no changing that fact. What had started as a false reality, was now an endless road of possibilities, of darkness and hopeless despair. Those that remained were cursed to a lonely existence, destined to fight one enemy after another.

The only way to fix the damage he had caused was to start everything over, but at what cost? How many lives… how many futures would she end up destroying to fix what he had done? Unlike her, they had no memories of their connection to her… of the soul link that existed between twins, of the pain that she felt tearing at her soul as she watched that twin leave and die, felt him join with another and have not one child, but two. It hurt… it was crushing her will to continue fighting, to hope that she still had a chance of setting things right…

Trapped in darkness, she waited… drifted… and then she heard it… a powerful voice and knew that once again they were making a foolish choice… all centered around that dragon and his ability to change fate and time. She wasn't going to let them… enough was enough… if they weren't going to stop the further fragmentation of the timeline, she would become the hero, the guardian that was necessary. There was no hope for her any longer… she was alone… what did it matter if her soul link still existed… he had no memories of her… he had chosen another…

They wanted a warrior to fight the enemies of time… so be it… she would become a friend to none, and an enemy to them all.


	2. Chapter one

Chapter One

* * *

**~ Dream ~**

"Come on! Get up already!" He threw an energy blast at her… Their companions flinched at the intensity and strength of his attack, but she simply laughed and swatted it away. Electrical attacks were deadly upon contact, but the twins were on a level that everyone had stopped trying to reach when they turned six.

It was only because their prince had killed his father that they were still alive… He remembered Vegeta sneaking into his room, telling him to take his twin to the farthest planet in the Universe. It was only because of their friendship that he had agreed. He had enough power to stop Vegeta's father and to protect his twin… "We can't afford a civil war," Vegeta warned, his expression filled with pain and resolve.

"I don't want the throne; you know that better than anyone."

"If I step aside, the people will assume that I'm a coward that relies on others to remove people that I don't want in power. I know that I need more time before I'm capable of stopping my father… I'm asking you for it… if I let you kill him, then I have no right to ask for anyone to follow myself as a ruler."

"You're asking that I make her an outcast?"

"No… I'm asking that the two of you continue to evolve… to become something greater than the legends. Do you have any idea how dangerous a soul link is and why we've never allowed anyone other than twins to have it?" He knew his friend couldn't understand… A set of small fingers settled on her twin's arm, calming him… Glancing down at her, he already knew that he was about to take her and run. Unlike him, she didn't want to fight the other Saiya-jins… to do so meant that they would risk their lives, following the orders of a tyrant that couldn't see past his own fears and hatred.

Vegeta saw them for what they were… they were a couple of kids… not even nine summers and his people were terrified of them. Alone, the two barely registered on their scouters, but together… he still remembered the guard that had broken her arm when she was a year old. They didn't have to worry about a body to incinerate… He did almost anything and everything that she wanted… That changed when someone threatened her… he was no longer docile or harmless, but one of the deadliest predators his kind had ever encountered. There was no compromise when it came to her. If Vegeta wanted to avoid a war and the death of thousands, he had no choice but to ask him to do this, hoping that he'd agree.

* * *

That had been ten years ago…

He knew that she was exhausted, but he wanted to fight, and not with a human or machine. Sensing his growing frustration, she reluctantly opened her eyes and turned her head to lock gazes with him. "I just got back," she sighed, closing her hand over a second energy blast in his palm.

His 'human' friends gasped… his electrical attacks were often deadly upon contact, but she had diffused it as if it were mere child's play. "I want… to spar…" he demanded. She had avoided his request the night before, but considering what she had been up against, he had allowed her to collapse the moment she had stepped foot into their camp.

"Can we eat first?" she asked, struggling not to laugh at the flare of irritation in his dark eyes. Picking up on her thoughts, he reached for her leg, but she was already on her feet, a hand closing around his wrist and throwing him.

It had happened so fast, his friends scattering like a bunch of frightened kittens. Granted, they were stronger than the average human, but they couldn't give him the one thing he craved… she was the only person that could evolve with him, meet him strike for strike, and because of their soul link, it was impossible to outsmart the other. Everything they did… every move… every thought… it was based on pure instinct.

"I hate fighting on an empty stomach!" she snarled, standing to dust the dirt and grass off of her uniform.

"I'll kill an entire herd of dinosaurs!" he promised. If she put off this fight one more time… She felt his blood lust… it was surprising that he had lasted a year with only a handful of deaths… the humans had no idea what they were up against… science and machines had nothing on soul linked twins.

"Is she crazy?" she heard one of the humans ask. She didn't blame their fear… Her twin in this state was no laughing matter, and she had her doubts that she'd walk away without a cracked or broken bone this time. He'd regret it later, but the one rule they both had was that neither of them was allowed to hold back when they fought.

He wasn't allowed to use his full power against other opponents, not if he wanted to refrain from killing them and an entire city. She kept him in check… if anyone ever discovered the kind of influence she held over him… she didn't want to imagine what might happen if someone ever found a way to eliminate her. Her twin… he had so much power… tamed only because of their soul link.

* * *

Opening his eyes, Kakarot stared at the ceiling to their room. For almost a century he had felt out of place… as if he was missing something… and why was he having that dream again? Vegeta was already awake, dressed, and quietly stretching and training in a corner. The moment they stepped outside of their sanctuary, they'd find themselves surrounded with envious looks and requests to train.

It was ludicrous to consider that either one of them would train anyone. Vegeta, although not as strong as himself, had to show a considerable amount of restraint when sparring or fighting. They would never accept the request of a 'normal' recruit, and the Kai of Time respected their refusal. It had angered some of the other kai's, but who were they to make demands of the Saiya-jin Time Patrollers?

"You were dreaming again," Vegeta commented.

"It doesn't matter… I still don't know who she is."

"You powered up," he growled, his dark eyes meeting Kakarot's with concern. Vegeta neglected to mention that Kakarot's aura had darkened, turning black with hate and rage.

"Are you surprised… even you have nightmares. It's one of the reasons we don't train anyone. Enough of this… it's pointless to ask about something or someone I won't remember five minutes from now. I am curious though… what is a soul link?"

Vegeta paled, his eyes going wide in horrified terror. "How and where did you learn of that?" he stammered.

"It's mentioned in every dream." Kakarot stood, already bored of the conversation. All he wanted was a fight that he wouldn't always stand a chance of walking away from. Even if he did lose, he would come back stronger… it was inevitable, and he had run out of opponents to fight. So desperate was he for the ultimate challenge, that he was travelling through time to get it.

Stepping into the sun, he tried to fill the warmth, but the dream left him feeling anxious and angry. Why would he fight a female? Even if she was a Saiya-jin; he had realized that there wasn't a living soul in any universe or timeline that can give him what he wanted.

Needing another mission, hoping to run into the Ultra Instinct version of himself again, he started to make his way to the Time Nest when they felt the ground shudder, the stone cracking and breaking apart. Vegeta didn't think; he reacted, sensing Trunks near the explosion, his energy rising quickly to Super Saiya-jin level 2. It wasn't enough… he was on the defensive and he was going to die.

Kakarot thought of staying out of it… Vegeta was more than enough to stop whatever it was… so why did he feel compelled to follow him? Growling, he took another step towards the Time Nest, determined to ignore whatever Trunks was fighting. He briefly recalled the Kai mentioning the dragon and summoning a fighter, one that was strong enough to handle their enemies. An image of that female rose to the surface…

_Leave me alone! _He roared, trying and failing to rid himself of her. The dreams were becoming more and more frequent; he didn't know a female Saiya-jin, but the dreams were from his days on Earth as a child! In the dream, it had been Vegeta, not his father that had asked him to go to Earth… his only mission was to become stronger, to evolve into something far greater than the legends. It was strange… he had done exactly that, as if he were somehow fulfilling a request from the dream Vegeta rather than the one his kind had supposedly given him.

Kakarot wanted to walk away, to take the next assignment, to ignore the growing need to unleash all of his power and engage whoever it was that was fighting in the Plaza of Time. Whoever he was up against, there was a tremendous amount of restrained power. Another tremor and he found himself taking a step in their direction; the opposite of his original intent.

One-by-one, his fingers curled into a tight fist, digging into the palms of his hands. He had to hold back… if he fought this person… he was going to unleash everything that he had… he wouldn't consider it a fair fight, but the strain of holding back for over a century had pushed him to the edges of his sanity.

_You act as if you'd stand a chance…_ he learned two things… one, the voice belonged to a female, the same voice that he often heard in his dreams. _You're not my twin… _she snarled, her mind shrouded with bitter rage and hate. _Granted, the link we share is stronger than usual… you might feel like him, sound like him, look like him, but… _

Hundreds of Time Patrollers surrounded the Plaza of Time, to include various versions of his 'human' friends. Watching Vegeta plow into a statue of Shenron, he couldn't help but find himself curious about her. She had waist length, black hair, a black tail, and eyes that were a violent storm of retribution. If anyone had wanted to jump in, they quickly changed their minds, terrified of the female that had made quick work of Vegeta and Trunks. Neither fighter was moving, and in the palm of her hand, he saw a familiar attack, one that he knew would kill them.

He had no idea why he did what he did… as she started to lift her hand, preparing to fire off the attack at Trunks, he was in front of her, and with one strike, she was thrown to the other side of the platform.

"Kakarot…" Vegeta warned, but Kakarot was beyond hearing him. He had often wondered how much his ex-rival held back… he now had his answer. Kakarot wasn't even in his ascended form and she had gone down. However, to his astonishment, she didn't stay that way, her thumb wiping away a trickle of blood forming on her busted lip.

_You should have stayed out of this,_ she hissed. _Damn that boy! Damn the Kai of Time! And damn you for being another copy of him! _

No one saw her move… no one had time to rationalize the events that took place in the Plaza of Time… only that a powerful barrier was erected around it, and all the fighters were teleported to a platform above the city. Going to Trunks, the Kai of Time began to heal him, her gaze never leaving the two Saiya-jins below.

"Shouldn't we help him," someone asked.

"Everyone will stay out of this!"

Trunks coughed, gradually regaining consciousness as he felt the shock waves of the battle. Was that Kakarot he was sensing? Why couldn't he feel the other fighter? Was she still in her base form? The Kai didn't have an endless amount of energy to heal him completely… she ensured that he was stable before going to Vegeta, his condition far more critical.

"I don't understand…" Trunks whispered. "I asked Shenron to bring us an ally of time… not an enemy."

"Everything the dragon does is based on how one words his or her wish. An ally of time, does not necessarily make her ours. Your exact words were for him to bring us a strong ally, someone to help defend against the enemies of time. In truth, every warrior here is exactly that… we are the enemies of time… even if our intentions are to fix it, a change is inevitable because our presence creates a new possibility. Trunks… I don't know how or why…" She tried to understand what was happening, the pain she was feeling radiating off the female fighter… her determination to destroy Kakarot and Toki Toki. "Every scroll in the Time Nest is glowing… she's in every one of them…"

"Are you saying that we shouldn't have summoned her?"

"No… I'm saying that she was, at some point, part of the changes… she's the key to stopping our enemies… someone removed her, erased her from time… What I don't understand is why one person… how erasing her from time… our memories… how that would create so many endless possibilities, all of them leading to death and destruction. That future isn't certain now… with her… we have a chance… a chance to reconnect the timelines, to guide them back."

"Soul link…" Vegeta groaned, trying to remember… Kakarot had asked about it, and he hadn't given it much thought. He should have known… everything about Kakarot started to make sense… his bursts of strength, his endless drive to fight, the restlessness he had started to feel after becoming a Time Patroller. "Can I ask you something?"

"You should relax… you're far from okay?"

"We might not have the time…" Vegeta warned, reaching for her hand and stopping her, forcing her to listen. "Was Kakarot ever the reason for Earth's destruction… as a child?"

"There were a few possibilities… the timelines where he hadn't hit his head. I always sent a Time Patroller to fix that…"

"Why? Who was the enemy? Who wanted Kakarot to destroy the Earth?"

She started to answer and froze… she should have had an answer, but she didn't. Did that mean… granted, the enemies after Kakarot had been doing so for a long time, and contrary to belief, it hadn't started with Trunks. "The death of a soul linked mate is beyond anything anyone here can imagine. They're not just lovers or mates… they're two halves of the same whole. What one knows… so does the other. Their power and energy is also linked…"

"The soul link was so dangerous, that unless you were born as a twin, it was forbidden to form them."

"Why?"

"If we lost one, we would have no choice but to destroy the other. In Kakarot's case… you can see why we wouldn't have allowed the soul link? From the moment we became Time Patrollers, he's been having dreams… he never remembers who was in them, or why he feels angry and trapped… why he feels as if he's lost someone or something important? He's not even aware of these thoughts… I pick up on them when we're merged as Vegito or Gogeta. From time to time, I pick out images of myself, but I'm different. In his dreams, I was never given to Frieza, and it was I who killed my father, not the Ice-jins. There's more..."

"Why didn't you say anything," the Kai shouted. "Do you have any idea what those dreams meant?"

"How the hell were we supposed to know? It's not like we're taught that visions and dreams are the same, that we're supposed to believe what we see when we close our eyes! Kakarot always forgot about her the moment he woke up… and so did I!"

"Shouldn't we stop them…" Trunks asked. "If she's part of the timeline…"

"No one interferes with a soul linked pair," Vegeta warned. "A fusion has a similar effect as a soul link; it's just not as powerful. Kakarot won't stop even if we asked… he's hitting her with just his base form attacks… I always thought I had a chance… that if I trained hard enough… what a joke…" he growled.

"You've always been a close match…" Piccolo started to argue.

"Kakarot's good at hiding his true abilities, and it's because so many fear what may or may not happen if he should ever turn or lose control. I saw hints of the real Kakarot on our last assignment… he had a run in with another version of himself, and it wasn't until he transformed that I saw a spark of interest. You have no idea how hard it is to get him to fight anymore… He simply sits back and waits… it's like he wants to see if the person is worth his time, and too often they're not."

"We might have a problem," the Kai of Time whispered, her expression full of sorrow and regret. She had gone back to watching the two Saiya-jins below, using an ability she often avoided. Kakarot didn't want to win… he wasn't going to hold back, but he needed and wanted this female to push him to a limit that he couldn't get from anyone else.

The female would destroy Kakarot and the entire city if he lost… the Kakarot she remembered was always slightly stronger than her… if she won, it was only because she had managed to outsmart him, but it was rare, and he never made the same mistakes twice. The Kai felt an endless amount of pain, the female trapped in a lonely darkness, aware of the changes to time, the attacks against Kakarot… unable to go to him… unable to stop the wish… unable to stop Trunks…

So convinced that this wasn't her Kakarot, she refused to acknowledge her soul link or how it was winding tighter and tighter around them. She wanted him to win… she wanted to die… to end her suffering and to find the twin that had been ripped away from her. Her enemy hadn't stopped at taking Kakarot away from her… he had ensured that her memories remained in tact, to feel the gaping hole that now existed inside of her.

If she won… she would take out Toki Toki and everything connected to time with her. She refused to allow anyone else to suffer as she had done… she had no friends… no allies… only enemies…

An endless stream of tears slid down the Kai of Time's cheeks. How could one person endure so much and not want to destroy the world… or in this case… all of time? "I… I don't know what to do… if we interfere, she'll destroy us. If we let this fight continue… he'll destroy her… she won't give him another alternative."

"The soul link will stop him," Vegeta assured her. "If he's the real twin… not just a copy… he won't kill her…"


End file.
